By Kale Merrill

All three Mount Vernon wrestlers continued their postseason aspirations in the second round of the 2A State Tournament on Friday. All three wrestlers found success on Thursday. But this time around unfortunately, two of the three wrestlers saw their journeys end.

Senior Ryan Clark (120) wrestled first on Friday. Clark looked to advance once more and gain a berth to the semifinals. He was matched up with a familiar opponent Brock Beck of Grinnell. Clark took Beck to overtime, but came up short the last time they wrestled earlier in the year. Clark wrestled a very tough, chess like match but came out on the losing side once again in a decision of 3-1.

Next on the slate was senior Paul Ryan (170). Looking to keep his perfect season alive he faced a sophomore from Creston. Ryan took care of business, winning the match with a decision of 5-2. With that win Ryan was set to advance to the semifinals and had to shift his focus to Wyatt Voelker, a freshman from West Delaware.

The consolation bouts were set to get underway. First up was Freshman Lincoln Holub (113). He was matched up with a freshman from Sergeant Bluff-Luton. He approached the mat confidently this time after shaking out all the nerves after his first 2 matches. But unfortunately his confidence wasn’t enough to advance; falling in his third3rd match by tech fall.

Next up was Clark looking to bounce back from his quarterfinals loss. But this time Mount Vernon’s renaissance man couldn’t find what he needed to advance. Falling in his final match as a Mustang, in extremely close fashion 6-5.

Semifinals began and Ryan came out very aggressive, “My plan was to go out there and push the pace since I knew he would look to control my wrists and slow me down, the coaches just told me to wrestle my match,” Ryan said. And that’s exactly what he did nabbing an early lead and never looking back advancing easily with a win of 8-5, and gaining a shot at the 2A 170-lb state title.